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Baroness backs Bury’s booze battle

Baroness Newlove came to Bury to see how the £90,000 cash injection from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to the Bury East Township Forum is being spent.

The money was given to the Bury East Township Forum in June last year for projects that would help to decrease alcohol related anti-social behaviour. These exciting and diverse projects were then presented to members of the community so that they could vote on which projects to award funding to.

Baroness Newlove, who is the Government Champion for Active, Safer Communities, met council leaders and partner agencies responsible for managing the Bury East Alcohol Prospectus Scheme (BEAPS) project.

In the afternoon she visited the New Kershaw Community Centre in East Bury to talk to groups responsible for delivering the projects. These included Groundwork, Street Pastors, Coram Life Education, POG (Proud of Gayness), Early Break, and the Neighbourhood Policing Team who outlined the progress they had made on each of the projects.

Councillor John Smith, deputy leader of the council, said: “An example of this is the Neighbourhood Policing Team’s Operation Henbury II, which is making a real difference to levels of alcohol related anti-social behaviour in Bury East. The operation focused on educating young people who were caught on the streets for a number of offences including possession of cannabis, committing crime and anti-social behaviour. Some 49 offenders were invited to the police station along with their parents to hear about the work being done, and more than half of them turned up. To date, not one of the young people spoken to as part of the project has been seen out causing trouble on the streets, or been stopped by the police since.”

Baroness Newlove said: “To tackle the damage done by binge drinking and anti-social behaviour, communities need to work together to find out what works in their area. I was really pleased to see community groups and organisations in Bury East doing just that. Their energy and enthusiasm for making their community a better, safer place was inspiring. I encourage them all to keep striving towards their goal.”